ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals [Day 2] Recap

Day 2 of eXTREMESLAND 2018. As many teams fought for their tournament lives, something unexpected shocked the CS:GO scene worldwide.

As day 2 comes to a close and we enter day 3, eXTREMESLAND writes a page in CS:GO history. OpTic India has been disqualified as Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat was found cheating during the match against Revolution. Despite the drama, day 2 was filled with intense match-ups that could have gone either way.

Group A Elimination Match

SCARZ Absolute 🇯🇵 vs D13 🇲🇳

Cache – 16:13

Despite D13 picking up the pistol round, SCARZ took the second round with an impressive 3 kills with the Deagle by Koji ‘Laz’ Ushida before moving on to win the next 5 rounds in a row. On the verge of having their economy being reset, Shinobi of D13 showed up huge with a 3k on round 8. Seizing the huge opportunity created by Telmen ‘shinobi’ Batzorig, D13 went on to win 7 out of 8 of the remaining rounds of the half to give them a 7:8 scoreline. In the next half, Temuulen ‘temk4wow’ Byambasuren from D13 started out the pistol round with a huge 4k to give them the pistol round. Despite that, the next few rounds of the game went to SCARZ. Once again, Shinobi turned up huge with a 4k on round 22 to get them 5 rounds to push them to match point. Despite losing two rounds, D13 secured the map with a 16 to 13 scoreline.

Train – 16:14

D13 took quite a few rounds at the beginning of the first half of the map. With a good CT side defense, SCARZ won 7/8 of the remaining rounds. Carrying some momentum from the first half, SCARZ continued to win the next three rounds after securing the pistol round. However, as Train is usually a CT sided map, and the odds caught up to SCARZ. It was an extremely close game at the end, with both teams trading rounds. Combined with a Weak Offense and the CT-sided map of Train, D13 takes map 2 and completes the upset.

D13 wins the Series 2-0, SCARZ is eliminated

Group B Elimination Match

Sad Story 🇹🇼 vs Beyond 🇹🇭

Cache – 16:8

Even though Sad Story won the first two rounds, Beyond almost ran away with the half. Sensing the half slipping away, WeiCian ‘3yA’ Wang’ came up huge with a 3k and a defuse to secure Sad Story their fourth round in the first half. With a nice morale boost, Sheng-Lun ‘crazyface’ Zhang took the next three rounds to even out the score. Despite that, Beyond was ahead 8-7 in the first half. Wanting to start out strong, Crazyface took matters into his own hands and killed 3 people with the P250, taking the pistol round. However, Peeratch ‘Olivia’ Ingkudanonda and Anupong ‘stk’ Mueangngam answered back in the next round with 3 and 2 kills with the CZ-Auto respectively. Following that huge momentum boost, Beyond took over the game, winning 7 rounds in a row to close out the map.

Train – 16:7

Despite Guan-Yu ‘Sayoko’ Lin getting an ace on the pistol round. Beyond answered back with an eco win which granted them 7 round wins in a row. After losing rounds 9 and 10, Tosapol ‘TOR’ Saekow regained Beyond’s momentum by getting a huge 4k on the awp. Closing out the half by winning all the remaining rounds of the first half. With their tournaments lives at stake, SadStory picked up the pistol round and the following three rounds in an attempt to bring it to a map three. However, losing too many rounds in the first half meant the comeback was nearly impossible. After losing the next four rounds, Sad Story fate was sealed as they were eliminated from the tournament.

Beyond wins the series 2-0, SadStory is eliminated

Group C Elimination Match

Optic India 🇮🇳 vs Revolution 🇻🇳

Inferno – 16:7

Despite Optic India jumping to a quick 3-0 lead, the start of the game was extremely tense. With both Fog and HaiVaan clutching huge rounds for their teams. With the T side economy side in Optic’s advantage, they broke the early stalemate and strung together rounds consecutively while Revolution crawled as many rounds as they can. Coming off a hot T side, Optic India crushed Revolution on the CT side, closing the map off with ease.

Cache – NA:NA

Revolution jumped to a quick 3 round lead after winning the pistol. With some heroics from Antidote, HaiVaan, and Forsaken, Optic India grabbed the lead and momentum back. It was a tense game throughout the entire first half, with both teams grabbing as many rounds as they can. As the game heads into the second half, the score was extremely close. Optic India managed to grab some rounds and whoops? Needless to say, my work has been cut short.

Optic India has been disqualified and Revolution moves on

Group A Decider Match

Flash Gaming 🇨🇳 vs Beyond 🇹🇭

Mirage – 16:8

The match showed why Flash Gaming was one of the top tier teams attending this event. They immediately jumped into a 7 round lead winning 8 rounds in a row. With the chances of winning slipping away, Beyond responded back with a good comeback to even out the game. However, when the sides changed, Flash gaming was a completely different monster. They came out of the half swinging, Beyond had no response. Flash gaming rolled over Beyond, securing the map with ease as they win out the remaining rounds.

Cache – 16:10

Carrying the momentum from the first map. Flash Gaming came out with the mindset to close out the game immediately. Despite losing the first three rounds, Flash Gaming came out and dominated the first half. Even though Beyond fought back to win some rounds, it did not really feel like Beyond was in the match. Making up for their mistakes, Flash Gaming wins Cache convincingly.

Flash Gaming wins the series 2-0, Beyond is eliminated and Flash Gaming moves on

Group B Decider Match

D13 🇲🇳 vs NASR 🇦🇪

Inferno – 16:12

The match started with D13 trying to complete their miracle run to the quarterfinals. The match was close at the start, where the match was back and forth with teams competing. D13 were looking impressive, threatening to take the map off NASR. However, NASR’s team experience came into play. The entire team faught tooth and nail and eventually they took the map.

Train – 16:4

NASR looked dominate this map, there was nothing D13 can do. D13 had an impressive run so far, beating our SCARZ Absolute. However, the better team clearly showed today.

NASR wins the series 2-0, D13 is eliminated and NASR moves on

Group D Decider Match

XCN 🇮🇩 vs TNC 🇵🇭

Inferno – 16:11

XCN had a decent CT defense against TNC, stringing together 5 rounds as CT after dropping the initial 3 rounds. However, TNC did a good job in forcing some rounds as they didn’t allow their offense to be stale. When TNC swapped to the CT side, they had the advantage as Inferno is usually CT-side favored. Combining a solid defense with the CT side advantage, TNC were able to have a good CT side to close out the map.

Train – 16:12

Sensing that the series might be over, XCN came out of the pistol with nothing to lose. Despite winning the first 5 rounds of the map, they only managed to secure two more wins as TNC grabbed back the lead. However, with a combination of the CT-sided map of Train and a solid defense, XCN managed to run away with the map while dropping an occasional round or two on the way. For the first time today, a map 3 was finally about to be played.

Dust 2 – 16:7

Being the last game of the day and the deciding map for both teams, the outcome of the game was slightly disappointing. Credits to TNC for coming out and asserting their dominance in the map. XCN were never really in the map, only winning a couple of rounds in-between. Their inability to start a run of their own and not being able to stop TNC’s momentum caused them the game.

TNC wins the series 2-1, XCN is eliminated and TNC moves on

Group C Decider Match

FrostFire 🇲🇾 vs Revolution 🇻🇳

Train – 19:17

The match started with FrostFire gaining a huge lead in the first half, winning 10 rounds of the first half. With their back against the wall, Tee went huge for Revolution, getting an ace to bring back the game for his team. With all the confidence from that, Revolution made a huge comeback as they win 10 rounds back in a row. With FrostFire feeling all the pressure, they almost crumbled and lost the game. However, they managed to win 3 rounds to push it to overtime. Through all the adversity they face, FrostFire managed to secure an intense overtime.

Cache – 16:11

It was an intense match throughout the map, as it was getting late and shouting from both teams can be heard from the media room. Looking to close out the best of three, FireFrost looked incredibly hard to stop. FrostFire CT side defense looked too good for Revolution. Even though Revolution tournament life was extended due to the disqualification of Optic India, it was soon ended as the better team won today.

FrostFire wins the series 2-0, Revolution is eliminated and FrostFire moves on

The playoffs finally begins on day 3 of eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals, below are the matches and timings for tomorrow.

Didn’t manage to catch yesterday’s game or are new to this event? Check out yesterday’s recap here!

CSGO2ASIA is in Shanghai this week for the Zowie eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Grand Finals. Each day, we will be providing a basic summary of all the action that took place here in Shanghai. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the live update and Instagram for a unique behind the scenes look at the event.